It's the start of Week Eleven... only five days left of my internship, two days left of class, five days until my research paper is due, and six days until I head home. I'm glad to be flying home this Saturday, since I'll get to see my family and friends again (and I won't have to worry about snow, which is expected on Tuesday). However, I really don't want to leave my internship behind so part of me definitely wants to stay in DC a few weeks longer.
The past two weeks have been a blur of applications, work, and academics. Applications for the best positions and programs for next summer (State Department summer interns, Critical Language Scholarship Program, etc.) are due this month, so I've been focusing a lot of my effort on getting those applications in by the appropriate deadlines. Hopefully I'll have something great lined up for next summer - I might be working at an embassy overseas with the State Department, I might be studying Arabic in a fully-funded program in North Africa, or I might even be back in DC with a paid position. We'll see what happens!
Things have been extremely busy at my internship as well - was anyone watching/reading the news last week when the Israeli-Gazan rocket crisis was going on? - so I feel bad for leaving at such a busy and important time for the office (and my supervisor keeps jokingly telling me that I promised from the start that I would be staying until May). Still, I'm happy to have worked there for an entire eleven weeks and it's great to know that my work has been appreciated if they don't want me to leave!
I've had a lot due over the past two weeks in my classes, mostly within my International Policy research seminar. I had a couple of assignments (a memo on democracy promotion in Tunisia and a quick research assignment on the U.S. role in Egypt's revolution) due last Monday and a draft of my research paper is due tomorrow, although the draft is optional. I definitely want to do well on my paper so I'm going to turn in whatever I have ready by tomorrow afternoon, but I'm a bit jealous of some of my roommates who don't have to worry about turning in a draft and are just focusing by finishing their papers by Friday. After I turn in my research paper on Friday, I won't be able to relax just yet - I still have a take-home final exam in my Washington Ethics elective (two essays) and then an extra credit 8-page paper to write, which are both due within a week of returning home. I'm not going to even start them until next Sunday after I'm settled in back in California, but I know I'll be busy with work and preparing for my Arabic final so it would be nice to not have to worry about last-minute deadlines in my elective class.
I haven't gotten too much schoolwork done over the past few days, since I flew up to New Hampshire to spend Thanksgiving with family (and I just got home yesterday). While New Hampshire is nearly 10 degrees colder than DC, it was really nice to see my aunt, uncle, and cousins and I wish I could have stayed there longer. Spending time with family really made me realize how ready I am to be home in California, so as much as I want the next week to go by slowly so that I'll have more time to work on my research paper, I also want it to go by as quickly as this quarter has so that I can get home. Who knew that homesickness would finally set in for the end of the quarter?
The past two weeks have been a blur of applications, work, and academics. Applications for the best positions and programs for next summer (State Department summer interns, Critical Language Scholarship Program, etc.) are due this month, so I've been focusing a lot of my effort on getting those applications in by the appropriate deadlines. Hopefully I'll have something great lined up for next summer - I might be working at an embassy overseas with the State Department, I might be studying Arabic in a fully-funded program in North Africa, or I might even be back in DC with a paid position. We'll see what happens!
Things have been extremely busy at my internship as well - was anyone watching/reading the news last week when the Israeli-Gazan rocket crisis was going on? - so I feel bad for leaving at such a busy and important time for the office (and my supervisor keeps jokingly telling me that I promised from the start that I would be staying until May). Still, I'm happy to have worked there for an entire eleven weeks and it's great to know that my work has been appreciated if they don't want me to leave!
I've had a lot due over the past two weeks in my classes, mostly within my International Policy research seminar. I had a couple of assignments (a memo on democracy promotion in Tunisia and a quick research assignment on the U.S. role in Egypt's revolution) due last Monday and a draft of my research paper is due tomorrow, although the draft is optional. I definitely want to do well on my paper so I'm going to turn in whatever I have ready by tomorrow afternoon, but I'm a bit jealous of some of my roommates who don't have to worry about turning in a draft and are just focusing by finishing their papers by Friday. After I turn in my research paper on Friday, I won't be able to relax just yet - I still have a take-home final exam in my Washington Ethics elective (two essays) and then an extra credit 8-page paper to write, which are both due within a week of returning home. I'm not going to even start them until next Sunday after I'm settled in back in California, but I know I'll be busy with work and preparing for my Arabic final so it would be nice to not have to worry about last-minute deadlines in my elective class.
I haven't gotten too much schoolwork done over the past few days, since I flew up to New Hampshire to spend Thanksgiving with family (and I just got home yesterday). While New Hampshire is nearly 10 degrees colder than DC, it was really nice to see my aunt, uncle, and cousins and I wish I could have stayed there longer. Spending time with family really made me realize how ready I am to be home in California, so as much as I want the next week to go by slowly so that I'll have more time to work on my research paper, I also want it to go by as quickly as this quarter has so that I can get home. Who knew that homesickness would finally set in for the end of the quarter?
Christine, I know I speak for everyone who knows you when I say how incredibly proud of you I am (the word 'incredibly' doesn't begin to describe it). Your friends at home miss you more than you miss them (again, 'miss you' doesn't begin to describe it), but you couldn't be in a better place. You've done great work as we all knew you would, but your best work is yet to come.
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